The body includes various passageways including blood vessels, such as arteries, urinary, biliary, tracheobronchial, esophageal or renal tracts, etc. These passageways sometimes become occluded or weakened, or otherwise in need of structural support. For example, they can be occluded by a tumor, restricted by plaque, or weakened by an aneurysm. When this occurs, the passageway can be reopened or reinforced, or even replaced, with a medical endoprosthesis. The endoprosthesis may be implanted in a passageway or lumen in the body. Many endoprostheses are tubular members, examples of which include stents, stent grafts, covered stents, aortic valves, etc.
Some endoprosthesis devices, such as polymeric stent platforms, may be shipped to a customer in an expanded state. In these cases, a physician may be required to constrain the stent onto a stent delivery system prior to inserting the stent delivery system into the patient. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide alternative stent constrainment mechanisms to facilitate constraining the stent into the stent delivery system for use during a medical procedure.